Kenny Rogers has sung about “The Gambler” for many years as a cautionary tale about being on a road to nowhere, playing a card game with no aces or a full house. He cautions you must know when to hold your cards and know when to fold ‘em, when to walk away and when to run. You especially need to know when the dealing is done. This is one of life’s hard lessons especially when you believe you can change the results by throwing in the cards life deals you and change the outcome.
Just ask Eddie, a nice guy who has suffered with a lousy hand in so many ways but who sincerely believes he can resolve the conflicts his family has endured and so he never stops trying. As the branch manager of an Italian restaurant in Idaho, he is willing to run special promotions to bring in new customers as he watches his precious hometown suffer downturns in prosperity. Playwright Samuel D. Hunter invites you to visit his beloved town of “Pocatello” courtesy of the Connecticut Repertory Theatre at the Jorgensen Theatre on the campus of the University of Connecticut until Sunday, April 6.
Chris Martin’s Eddie sincerely wants to rectify all the problems of the people in his world, his mother and brother, his brother’s wife and daughter, his friends, and their families and his employees. Of course, he has tasked himself with saving the restaurant too as if he has the powers of a Superman. His childhood traumas still haunt him like the suicide of his father and he is surrounded by people who abuse alcohol and drugs, question their sexuality, want to dissolve their marriage, are fighting against their aging process, lack self-confidence, and are suspicious of unhealthy food processes that may kill them.
Desperation is being served on the menu and everyone is forced to examine their lives and, hopefully, to make some changes, to acknowledge their problems and wake them up to some solutions. The cast is challenged to make each member struggling emotionally to survive in this dying town: Djanna, Eliza Anderson, Daniel Pawlyk, Carol Halstead, Zachary Russell, Akur Oryem, Dale Rose, Halli Gibson, and Aly Liew. Director Paul Mullins serves a hearty helping of emotional bread sticks at every table.
For tickets ($32-42), call the CT Repertory Theatre, Hillside Road, Storrs at 860-486-2113 or online at art.uconn.edu. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday ay 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Watch for Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” coming to the Nafe Katter Theater April 24-May 4.
As a child, Samuel D. Hunter loved the Olive Garden Restaurant with all “its fake Italian” splendor, like a Disneyland. In “Pocatello” he is trying to save his hometown and all the special people he is connected to and make their lives of quiet desperation better. Wish him God speed and good luck in his ambitious task.
No comments:
Post a Comment